


Gecko's always let each other down

by LadyAuroraStars



Category: From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series
Genre: F/M, Family moments, Uncle Eddie - Freeform, a little bit of SethKate at the end, baby Geckos, bit au, fighting Geckos, slight Abuse Triggers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-14
Updated: 2015-10-14
Packaged: 2018-04-26 08:34:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,539
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4997977
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyAuroraStars/pseuds/LadyAuroraStars
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The one time Seth Gecko remembers making Uncle Eddie proud. The three times Seth Gecko let Uncle Eddie down. And the one time Uncle Eddie broke Seth Gecko’s heart.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gecko's always let each other down

Seth is twelve when he walks through the doors of Eddie’s shop with a big black eye and a tear stricken Richie in tow. Little Seth Gecko tosses a big black backpack into the corner, walking past Eddie as though he looks that way every day.

Eddie grabs Seth’s arm, tugging him back. “Seth, what the hell?” Eddie asks grasping the boy by both his shoulders. “What happened?”

Seth diverts his eyes from Eddie as he looks at Richie cowering in the corner. Richie stays silent and watches as Eddie looks between the two boys. Without a word, Seth jerks his body away from Eddie, and without a glance at Richie walks into the kitchen. Eddie is quick to follow after him, “I asked you what happened Seth!”

Eddie raises his voice at the young boy, who is now digging around in the freezer.

“It’s nothing Uncle Eddie.” Seth mumbles as he presses a pack of frozen vegetables onto his swollen, almost purple eye.

Eddie gives the boy a good once over and notices his knuckles, broken and bloody. “Nothing huh? Well, that’s not what I asked. So, tell me what _happened_.”

It’s an odd thing, Eddie- who was a professional thief, had a list of things that he would not put up with from the boys and violence was one of them. He was raising these boys right, even if it sent him to an early grave.

“It’s my fault.” Little, chubby cheeked Richard squeaks as he goes to stand in front of Seth in the kitchen.

Eddie almost laughs at the scene before him- Richard with his heavy glasses falling down his nose, too tall and lanky to understand how to hold himself, protecting Seth who just looks downright pissed off at the world.

Seth pushes Richie out of the way, shooting him a fierce look, “I don’t need you to defend me Richard.”

“One of you are going to tell me why you are sporting a black eye, do you understand?” Eddie reminds them as he takes a seat at the table.

Seth sighs, knowing he can’t really lie his way out of this- because the school will be calling Eddie soon enough. “A bunch of kids were picking on Richie, and so I took care of it.” Seth says with a raised brow, almost daring Eddie to tell him he was wrong for protecting his brother.

Eddie purses his lips, and makes a big huffing sound. Before he can say anything its Richie who steps in, “Uncle Eddie, it wasn’t Seth’s fault! They had me pinned to the ground and they were gonna break my glasses- and I swear Uncle Eddie they were gonna kill me!” Eddie almost lets out a laugh at the way the dramatic youngest Gecko swings his arms out and dances around the kitchen telling the story.

“Protecting your kid brother huh?” Eddie asks Seth with a blank look on his face, “You beat up on some kid because he was beating up on your brother? Well…” Eddie watches as Seth swallows hard, and winces as he presses a little too hard onto his eye. “Give me a minute with your brother Richie.”

Richard hesitates before running off into the hallway.

“Take a seat.” Eddie nods to the chair across from him, watching as Seth rolls his eyes but sits anyway.“So, did you win even though you have a black eye?” Eddie questions Seth.

Seth looks at Eddie as though he is waiting for something more but finally answers with a low, “Yes.”

Eddie watches as Seth finds a spot on the table to stare at intently, “Good.” Eddie says with a small smile.

Seth flinches at his voice, and Eddie makes a mental note of it. Seth looks back up to him with a confused look on his face, “Good?” Seth asks his uncle, “But, you said no violence, that you won’t tolerate it. That’s what you said when we came here.”

Eddie watches as the young boy tries to process what he is saying, “Yes, good. Seth, it’s good because Richie is your responsibility. Your little brother needs you, and you need to be there for him. If some little son of a bitch is messing with him then you need to remind that kid that Richie is a Gecko. Gecko’s are not the kids that get messed with on the fucking playground.”

Seth sits the bag of now melted mush onto the table, “So, your saying I’m not in trouble? That I was in the right when I was protecting Richie?”

Eddie scratches his cheek, and with a very calm voice looks Seth dead in the eyes, “I am proud of you, for protecting your brother. I am telling you now, that no matter what happens, your brother- that kid in there is all you have, and you are all that he has. That means you _kill_ for each other if that’s what it takes.”

Seth knew this already, he knew that Richie was his responsibility- he knew he had to be the best big brother in the world. It was just a feeling that had been running through his blood since the moment his mom put Richie in his arms, he could never let anything happen to that kid. Living with his father had shown Seth just how much Richie needed him, and how much he needed Richie. But, Seth had never been told that someone was proud of him for protecting Richie. No one had ever told him that all of the things the Gecko brothers did for each other was okay.

Seth decides in that moment that keeping Richie protected and making Uncle Eddie proud of him is all he needs in life- if he knows he has those two things in life, not much else would matter.

 

* * *

 

Eddie comes home after a meeting one night to find the boys yelling in the living room. This was a familiar occurrence as of late, Seth was sixteen now and Richie seemed to constantly be in his way- that is when he wasn’t using him to run little jobs, they thought Eddie was blind to.

“You’re a fucking idiot and that’s not my fault Richard!” Eddie can hear Seth screaming as he wanders his way from the kitchen.

Seth stands tall and sure in the living room, wearing jeans and sweatshirt with hair too long for Eddie’s liking- it makes him look like his father. Richard is sitting on the couch, not even glancing at Seth as he reads a thick book. Eddie tries not to notice the small black bag sitting next to Richie on the sofa, probably filled with money from a little stop n’ store.

“Dinner. Now.” Is all Eddie says as he starts dishing out fried chicken onto three separate plates.

Richard comes and grabs one from himself, sitting down and silently eating. Seth, however glares at Richie while scarfing down his food. After five minutes of silence Richie finally glances up to meet Seth’s eyes.

“You got something to say?” Richie asks aggressively over the table.

Seth props both elbows onto the table, “Yeah, I do. You’re a fucking idiot!” He starts to yell.

Eddie places his fork down onto his plate, and sighs before looking at both the boys yelling at each other. “Shut the fuck up!” He roars out, and both the boys’ heads snap toward him, “We are at the table, and the both of you are idiots. Now, I don’t care what you all are fighting over but you need to eat on it, and give me some peace.”

Both the boys watch as Eddie picks back up his fork, and starts eating his mashed potatoes. Eddie waits to see which boy will crack first, and start yelling again. When neither do, he grins to himself as he takes the last bite from his plate.

Looking at both the boys staring at their plates, he finally pipes in. “So, what are we fighting about now?”

Richie glances up at him, and Seth glares at Richie. “Seth wants to pull a job, and I think it’s a bad idea.”

Seth huffs, “No one gives a fuck what you _think_ Richard.”

Eddie watches the hurt run across Richie’s face for a split second, before his cool, calm expression returns to his face. “I’m just saying that you’re gonna end up in jail if you go through with it.”

Eddie puts his napkin on the table, “Well, if that’s the case, then you throw the job out.”

Seth glances over at Eddie, “I’m not wrong about this job. It’s something Uncle Eddie.”

“Your partner is saying it no good, code says if your partner says it no good then you don’t do it.” Eddie remarks back, and Richie throws him a smile.

Seth looks back and forth between the two, “You both can go fuck yourselves.” Seth snarls, walking out of the kitchen.

Richie goes to stand up, but Seth’s words beat him to it. “I know you think you’re so smart and better than me but when one of us dies because you freeze on another fucking job, maybe you will see you’re a fucking idiot!”

The sound of the door slamming echo’s as they hear Seth’s car start up. Eddie starts clearing the table, and turns back around to see Richie wiping at his cheek.

“We weren’t fighting about this job.” Richie admits to Eddie, “Last job, I froze and it was like I had lost all my nerve. I just left Seth standing there, yelling at me. I couldn’t leave, I had knocked out the clerk and she was just lying there with blood on her head. I don’t know what happened.”

Eddie sighs, “Not all jobs run perfectly, sometimes things happen Richie. You’re just a kid, you shouldn’t be doing this shit anyway.”

Richie looks at Eddie through those thick lenses, and his voice is suddenly very low, “I can’t leave Seth vulnerable like that again. He could have been caught, while I was standing there going through some kind of anxiety attack. I have to be able to watch his back like he watches mine.”

Eddie watches as Richard spends the rest of the night pretending that his brothers parting words had not hurt him, but it was clear to see that Richie was only thinking about his brother’s words. Eddie was even more disappointed in Seth when he didn’t come home that night, and Richie slept out on the sofa.

However, Richard Gecko never froze during a job again.

* * *

 

 

Seth Gecko is standing in Eddie’s kitchen drunk out of his mind, going on and on about a girl named Vanessa. Eddie is trying to get him to drink some coffee, because apparently if Seth is awake Eddie needs to be too.

“She just gets me. She understands this life...” He trails off, looking into the darkness of the coffee. “She could get me out of this life- we could live a normal life Eddie.” Eddie looks at Seth- Seth in his suit, looking just like his father.

“I thought you liked this life.” Eddie comments, drinking his own coffee.

Seth runs a finger around the mug, “Yeah, but that’s ‘cause I was never given another choice, it was always gonna be this way. For me and Richie, it’s in our blood. You know that.” Seth pulls his jacket off, holding back a long yawn, “You’re telling me you never thought about your life in another life? Had I not been my father’s son, had I not have had Richie to look after, I know I wouldn’t be here.”

Eddie stands up from his place, holding closed his thick robe, “It’s in your blood Seth, and I promise you don’t have any life that Richie is not in. If you want out, then you get out but I promise you won’t be happy."

It was the only time that Eddie had ever heard Seth talk about another life. He went back to being his confident self, the man who knew his job, and the man who would lay down his life for the other Gecko. But, it didn’t change the fact that every time Eddie looked at Seth he thought about that night. He thought about how for a split second, Seth wanted to turn his back on blood. That was another code in Eddie’s book that Seth tried to break.

 

* * *

 

 

Its years later when Eddie gets a call in the middle of the night from Seth. He had been arrested for a job he did on his own. Instead of yelling at Seth, Eddie stays quiet and listens to his nephew tell him about how he’s not getting out any time soon. 

It’s at the end of the phone call that Seth asks him to watch out for Richie, and Eddie’s replies saying, “That was supposed to be your job.” Seth knows he let him down, he knows that Eddie will never fully trust him again.

Seth had gone off on his own, foregoing family and had ended up in a jail cell. It’s when Eddie sees Seth’s face painted on the nightly news that he feels most disappointed- disappointed that Seth had felt like he could do this job without Richie. Whatever reason, Geckos are best together, and Seth had abandoned his brother. Now, Seth was no longer in the position to be the brother he was supposed to be, and who the hell knew what kind of trouble Richie would get himself into.

 

 

* * *

 

 “I am doing this for you Richard!” Seth screams across the kitchen at his brother, as Richard leans against the wall.

Eddie is sitting at the table, sitting across from him is a sweater clad Kate. All four had been going over plans when Richie and Kate announced that they had a better idea of finding this guy with his pants down. The job was dangerous, and they all knew it, but Seth seemed more than happy to be the first one to jump out over the edge. Santanico was locked away somewhere, and the job was to get her back- and also recover all of the money from the man Richie was going to kill. It had taken a lot of fighting and a lot of eating to get Seth to agree to it, but when Kate said they owed Santanico, Seth had a hard time fighting anymore.

Eddie had been proud to see them all working together again, but Seth had been uptight about the whole thing. He had been overprotective of both Kate and Richie, and as far as Eddie was concerned he was being stupid.

“The only way we are getting in is if Kate goes in first.” Richard tells Seth calmly, running a hand over the blue prints.

“If Kate can just distract him long enough for us to get a drop on his men, then we will have him- and in his mansion, nowhere could be better.” Seth slams the mug in his hand down onto the counter, coffee flying all over Eddie’s clean kitchen, “I said no Richard, we are not sending Kate in there for any fucking reason!”

Kate give’s Seth a look that screams how much trouble he is in, “I can take care of myself Seth. This is the only way this is working.”

It’s another hour of fighting when Eddie stands up, running a hand down his face, “You sound like your father.” Eddie mumbles out, as he heads to the coffee maker.

“Excuse me?” Seth grunts out as he grabs Eddie’s arm.

Eddie glances down at the hand gripping his arm, and up at Seth’s face, “You sound like your father used to. Controlling and sure as hell not hearing anyone out, your plan is going to get you all killed. If you had just protected Richie we wouldn’t even be here right now, you failed Richie just like he failed the two of you. You’re not thinking straight, Kate is the only fucking way into that place and you know it.”

Richie goes to intervene, “Uncle Eddie.” He says quietly, a warning.

For the first time in days no one is really talking or yelling, and it’s an odd sound for this house.

“I sound like dad, is that it?” Seth smirks down at the old man, a menacing look in his dark eyes.

Eddie regrets his words instantly, he regrets being the one to cause that look in Seth’s eyes, “I didn’t mean… Seth, I just meant that you’re not listening to anyone else.”

Seth glances over at his brother, and then to Kate, his eyes finding Eddies again, “No, its fine. I’m not wanted here. You all have fun finding the snake Queen, I’m sure she will really appreciate your effort.” Seth says to them all, letting Eddie go and reaching for his jacket on a chair.

Eddie stays quite, unsure really how to fix what he said. Talk of his brother is a sore subject around the boys- around anyone really. Eddie knew what it meant to say what he did, but he said it before he could stop himself.

Kate stands up, going to reach for the fleeing older Gecko brother, “Seth, lets just talk this out, _please_.”

Seth turns on her quicker than Eddie can blink, and looks down at her with a shit eating grin full of anger, “I know you have become close to the snake bitch, but I still remember all she’s done. I still remember how she fucked up our lives, and just because you forgive her does not mean that I do.” Seth hisses down at the small girl, “I am not willing to put your life on the line for her. I sure as hell am not going to stay to watch either of you die for _her_.”

Seth yanks his arm from Kate’s grasp and strides to the door.

“Where the hell are you going Seth?” Richie asks, standing behind Kate.

Seth pauses for a moment, then turns looking Eddie dead in the eye, “I’m going to go get drunk off my ass, because that’s what us older Geckos are good at right Eddie? I’m going to go be dad, and I’ll try not to come back and beat the shit out of you Richie.” Seth growls before turning and slamming the door shut, leaving the three of them standing in Eddie’s kitchen.

It’s later, when both the Gecko’s had left her that Kate ventures out into the heavy rain. His car is still parked around the corner of the building- Kate knew it would be, she didn’t hear him drive off or even start the car. She slides herself into the passenger seat, pulling her damp hair to one side of her head. Sitting there with both hands white knuckled on the wheel is Seth Gecko.

His suit buttoned up, his dark hair perfectly mussed from the rain, and his thick, dark eyelashes heavy with tears. It’s so cold in the car that Kate rubs her fingers together, “Seth…” She starts, but stops herself as he looks over at her. His cheeks are damp, and lips are quivering. It’s one of the oddest sights Kate has ever seen. Seth motherfucking Gecko sitting in a cold car, crying because of the words of his uncle.

With a monotone voice Seth says, “I am not my father.”

Kate reaches for his hand, grasping it in hers and placing a light kiss on his cold palm, “I know Seth, and so does Eddie. No one thinks you’re anything like your father.” She tries to reassure him, but Seth starts shaking his head before she can finish.

“Uncle Eddie’s right, I am just like him.” Seth mutters, his breath making little clouds in the cold air. “I was supposed to keep Richie safe, it was my job. I was supposed to protect him, but look at what he is now. I was supposed to make Uncle Eddie proud. I failed, and I can’t fail at protecting you, Kate. If anything happened to you…” Seth trails off, slamming his left hand hard against the steering wheel, causing Kate to jump.

Kate places both her hands on his cheeks, making him look at her. “Seth Gecko you are nothing like your father.” She runs her thumbs over his fallen tears, “You did protect Richie, Seth. He is right where he wants to be, he’s happy with who he is. You got him to that place, you watched out for him all of that time. And, nothing is going to happen to me. Do you understand? Nothing.” Kate says as he leans closer into her, his forehead finally coming to rest on her shoulder.

She runs a hand through his smooth hair, attempting to soothe him but she knows that she failed when he starts mutter over and over again. “Eddie was right, he was right.” Kate can’t help but feel tears in her eyes as she holds him, as his body silently shakes, and Kate is unsure what she can do to fix it.

"I'm going to end up breaking  _everyone_ I love." Seth whispers into the cold car. 

 


End file.
